Even by the considerable
standards of past next-generation consoles, the Sony PlayStation
3 has been subject to almost ludicrous levels of prerelease hype
and hyperbole. Credit for much of the frenzy goes to Sony
Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) president Ken Kutaragi,
whose incendiary sound bites have kept Internet technology sites
busy since the console was unveiled during a prerenderific press
conference at this year's E3 show. Here, we'll take a look at
the few details we know for sure about this undeniably powerful
console, as well as the scads of rumors that have yet to be
confirmed.

Confirmed: what we know
Specs: The PlayStation 3 will be the first commercial device
powered by the ballyhooed Cell processor, a 3.2GHz chip that
Sony developed with help from IBM and Toshiba. But it's not the
Cell's clock speed that has Kutaragi billing his console as an
"entertainment supercomputer"--it's the chip's seven synergistic
processing elements (SPEs), which work in parallel to churn out
a staggering 218 gigaflops, or 218 billion floating point
operations per second. In practice, that should make the PS3
especially adept at such processor-intensive activities as
upconverting video and emulating past PlayStation games. Which
leads us to...

Backward compatibility: This was one of the first PlayStation 3
features to be confirmed, when the ever-loquacious Ken Kutaragi
promised it way back in 2003. So whether this is something that
Sony planned all along or a feature it scrambled to implement
once Kutaragi bragged about it, the result is the same: you'll
be able to play your PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games, right
out of the box, on the PlayStation 3. On the minus side, the
PS3's backward compatibility will not extend to hardware, so you
won't be able to access your saved games unless someone figures
out a way to transfer data from a PS2 memory card to the PS3's
Memory Stick Duo.

Graphics hardware: Remember how the Cell processor turns 218
billion flops? Well, the PlayStation 3's graphical processing
unit (GPU) will crank out 1.8 trillion of them. Dubbed the RSX
(short for reality synthesizer), this GPU has a 550MHz clock and
pushes its billions of pixels through dual HDMI ports, which
output a high-definition signal at up to 1080p. At E3, Jen-Hsun
Huang from Nvidia--which designed the RSX for Sony--claimed that
the RSX was as powerful as two Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra cards,
which is perhaps one reason that speculation on the PS3's price
tag has reached, at last count, the stratosphere.

Hard drive: One of the latest details to be confirmed for the
PS3 was that the console's hard drive will be an optional
accessory instead of an out-of-the-box feature; Ken Kutaragi
cleverly spun the omission in Sony's favor by rationalizing that
"no matter how much [space] we put in it, it won't be enough."
When the hard drive does arrive, it'll carry a Linux-based
operating system, which we imagine will coordinate the console's
nongaming capabilities.

Blu-ray: Surprise! Sony's next-generation console will use the
company's own Blu-ray discs to store high-definition content for
games. That means PS3 owners will be getting a "free" Blu-ray
player so that they can enjoy movies in full high-definition
once they become available. The PS3 will also play standard CDs
and DVDs, though it won't accept competing HD-DVD discs. While
the Blu-ray format gives the PS3 a leg up on the Microsoft's
Xbox 360 (which will store its games on standard DVDs), the
future-friendly decision will be yet another excuse to drive up
its price.

Peripherals: Like the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Revolution, the
PS3 supports multiple wireless controllers. Sony gets props for
supporting up to seven simultaneous gamepads, as well as for
using the Bluetooth wireless standard. By comparison,
Microsoft's console supports only four controllers and uses
proprietary wireless transmission, while Nintendo's controllers
still lack a final design.

Rumor and speculation: what we don't know
Price: A cutting-edge processor, a GPU twice as powerful as
anything you can get in a gaming PC, and next-generation media
storage--what's wrong with this picture? Nothing, until you
realize that somebody has to pay for it. Not to trot out
Kutaragi again, but this is one area where he's been
particularly vocal, even for him. Suffice it to say, when the
president of SCEA says that consumers will "want to work more
hours" to buy a PlayStation 3, the console's going to be
expensive. The only question is how much, and speculation has
run from a little less than $400 to past the $500 mark. Also,
fancy graphics mean long development cycles, and as development
costs increase, so do the costs of games; we wouldn't be
surprised to see many PS3 titles exceeding $60 at launch, not to
mention the HDTV you'll need to fully harness the console's
high-def capabilities. When all's said and done, we could be
looking at the first console in history with its own structured
financing program.

Release date: This is another big question mark. While Sony is
officially sticking to the spring 2006 launch date it announced
at E3, some analysts have speculated that under certain
conditions, the console could remain behind glass until 2007.
Nobody wants to see that kind of delay, although perhaps by then
our currency will have inflated to the point that the console
somehow becomes more affordable.

Controller design: Like the Nintendo Revolution, the PS3 still
lacks a finalized controller design. The boomerang-shaped
controller that debuted at E3 was greeted with near-universal
rancor, leading Sony higher-ups to hastily decree that the E3
design was just a prototype. Either way, the PS3's gamepad will
have a tough act to follow, since the PS2's Dual Shock II was
widely considered the best of its generation.

Online multiplayer: While there's no question that the PS3 will
support some form of online multiplayer mode, no specific plans
have been confirmed. We think it likely that Sony will offer a
central, Xbox Live-style server that gives gamers their own
persistent online identities, but we're not ruling out a less
centralized system. After all, the Sony PSP requires game
developers to set up their own distinct servers for online play.

The bottom line
Last time around, the original Xbox came out later than the PS2
and, thus, wielded a significant hardware advantage. But with
the next generation of gaming consoles, Sony appears to have the
technological edge. Microsoft has already announced its strategy
for undercutting the PlayStation 3 at launch: Halo 3, the latest
sequel in its staggeringly popular franchise, will arrive in
stores the same day as Sony's console. But based on the
console's impressive specs and Sony's strong tradition of
support from developers, we see no reason to doubt that the
company's new model will affirm its place at number one when the
PS3 launches with its own set of mind-blowing titles. And though
the PS3's price may cripple our nation's economy for years to
come, in the end, true gaming enthusiasts will simply have to
own one.